Death of an Artist

I am dying.  No more waiting to make it.  No more empty handshakes.  No more trying to get galleries to show the work.  No more wasting time in an inflated art world.

Time to move on to another world.  I hope what I have left will have an impact sometime and somewhere.  If it does not, I made art for art's sake.

Nothing else matters.

Mystical Union of Art and Life and the Mega Engineering of Heroic Technology

Like the Two Towers of Tolkien, polar antagonism is the result of good and evil forces seeking dominance over the other.  Which will prevail determines the color of an age.  As the wizard Saruman says, "The World is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman ... and the union of the two towers? Together, my Lord Sauron ... we shall rule this Middle-earth."  We have come out of a particularly dark period, where towers have risen and fallen.  The Twin Towers hang like phantasms around a rather sober looking singular tower taking their place in New York City  In essence, the two have become one.  It is arguable that from an architectural standpoint, the New World Trade Center is deficient in design to make New York City nothing other than like Paris before the end of WWII.  That is another aspect of this however.

Paul Laffoley defines the Bahauroque as more or less a fusion of both "the heroic modernism of the German “Bauhaus,” with its aspiration toward a technological utopia, and the exalted theatricality of the Italian baroque, in which an exuberance of form and illusion serve to express the mystical union of art and life."  I think he means a resolution of opposites, perhaps resolved in the destruction of the Twin Towers and being rebuilt both physically and spiritually in one symbolic tower representing the age of technological advancement which is happening at high speed.  Perhaps these opposites were not so diametrically opposed after all, and their fusion promises a great future of aesthetic potential.

I think that the motivations are moving as Laffoley said, to breakdown the barriers between opposites.  This is not in some highly intellectualized, decentralized way like in Postmodernism, but in a new way that has a mystical foundation in form.  Art and architecture may be able to speak their own psychic language again and we can envision formality in a way that is dedicated toward beauty in order to bring about a higher dimensional reality.  

This is heroic technology, building on genius creations of great engineering potential.  It is also mystical, yoking together realities that have become divorced from each other as a result of the cold intellectualism needed initially to usher in this technological age.  Now the shift in consciousness is possible and the understanding transformational.

Conversions

An artist goes on a long path to nowhere

stubbing his toe along the way

strong wind musters up as much evil as a cross could bear

but light can be seen afar

Towers crash and people burn

She eats her fill to start a new millennium

There are tired souls immersed in empty formlessness

but cold water shocks them

After chaos makes its mark

the artist leaves Babylon

enters a world of white mastery

Golden Buddha and Ganesha there to remove obstacles

From this the synthesis is born

Good and Evil as two poles in cosmic equilibrium

we must fight to get peace

the artist just laughs

The Heroic Modernism of High Technology and the Mystical Union of Art and Life in the Tower

Like the Two Towers of Tolkien, polar antagonism is the result of good and evil forces seeking dominance over the other.  Which will prevail determines the color of an age.  As the (evil) wizard Saruman says, "The World is changing. Who now has the strength to stand against the armies of Isengard and Mordor? To stand against the might of Sauron and Saruman ... and the union of the two towers? Together, my Lord Sauron ... we shall rule this Middle-Earth."  We have come out of a particularly dark period, where towers have risen and fallen.  The Twin Towers hang like phantasms around a rather sober looking single tower taking their place in New York City.  In essence, the two have become one.  It is arguable that from an architectural standpoint, the Freedom Tower is deficient in design to make New York City nothing other than like Paris before the end of WWII.  Examples of more prevalent visionary ideas are exemplified in towers like the Burj Khalifa or the Petronas Towers. The fact that Antonin Gaudi's Grand Hotel for New York was supposed to be built at the World Trade Center site is also interesting.  That is another aspect of this conversation however.

Paul Laffoley defines the Bahauroque as more or less a fusion of both "the heroic modernism of the German 'Bauhaus,' with its aspiration toward a technological utopia, and the exalted theatricality of the Italian baroque, in which an exuberance of form and illusion serve to express the mystical union of art and life."  I think he means a resolution of opposites, perhaps resolved in the destruction of the Twin Towers, and being rebuilt both physically and spiritually in one symbolic tower representing the age of technological advancement which is happening at high speed.  Perhaps these opposites were not so diametrically opposed after all, and their fusion promises a great future of aesthetic potential.  Reconstruction takes place out of postmodern ideas of absence in the sculptural field, like Rachel Whiteread's creations demonstrate.  As with Humpty Dumpty, the broken entity is pieced back together again.  The nature of design will naturally change in lieu of this reality based on a new aesthetic perspective and paradigm.  

The oppositional resolution is not in some highly intellectualized, decentralized way like in Postmodernism, but in a new way that has a mystical foundation in form.  Art and architecture may be able to speak their own psychic language again and we can envision formality in a way that is dedicated toward beauty in order to bring about a higher dimensional reality.  

This is the heroic modernism of high technology, building on ingenious creations of great engineering potential, like for example the work of Antonin Gaudi, and in some respects the Deconstructionists.  It is also mystical, yoking together realities that have become divorced from each other as a result of the cold intellectualism needed initially to usher in this technological age.  Now the shift in consciousness is possible and the understanding transformative.

The Future of Art and Technology

The future of art and technology is an interesting subject and impossible to broach over in a few sentences.  It is incredibly complex.  First of all, we are witnessing several aspects in the technological age.  Post-Neitszche, God is Dead.  It seems that technology is God.  Google is God (at least for now).  The Darwinists are increasingly moving towards a model of man as machine.  Postmodernism did the same...as in Deleuze and Guattari's "desiring production" and materialist psychiatry.  Richard Dawkins refers to man as "gene machines".  Daniel Dennett's opposition to Searle's Chinese Room as a refutation of the possibility of Strong AI, points in the direction of Asimov's I Robot.  The matter is the more material we become, the more we seek out material answers to our problems.  The divorce of science and religion has its roots in the Age of Enlightenment.  Despite a few resurgences of romantic elements in art, poetry and music, the mystical has been reduced down to a "Game of Life" where automatons are the true motivators of action in time and space.

This is what I see.  Art will become irrelevant in this respect.  How or why would a machine need art?  Art is the subject that brings mankind to unknowns in ways that differ from science.  In one sense, art and science are two sides of the same coin.  But, I would say, art deals more with unknowns in terms of feelings, intuition and other things that go outside of pure reason.  For this reason, it seems that art will have no room in a world guided by materialistic principles devoid of any sense of spirituality.

If we are simply machines, creating machines which will become human like, then it appears to be one big feedback loop.  I do not see progress there, with the exception of the extension of life, if that is the end game.  Art then would be possible, if a machine can become conscious, self-aware, searching and not just automatically reproducing what has been programmed.  I do realize that we ourselves could be seen as simply acting out our destinies based on unconscious urges and not having the free will postulated by so many religions.  Either way, this is an important crux in the relationship of art and science, and important for artists to consider in this changing world.

Intuition Pumps

Intuition Pumps are Dan Dennett's term for thought experiments.  The basic idea is that they appeal to a person's philosophical intuition and not entirely to reason.  They can be useful logical tools, but they can also be misleading, implying that their analogy is complete in itself, leaving out other logical possibilities.

It seems that anymore, any expression or idea that has "feeling" somehow imbued within it, is no longer sound.  I admit, logic carries us a long way.  It has taken us to the moon, allowed incredible advances in medicine, politics and society, and in general, science is founded upon it.

However, the very act of hypothesis is itself intuitive until it becomes solidified in factual results.  The Latin "intuitio" means "to look at, consider".  Not that art cannot be logical, but so many aspects of inspiration, at least seem to come from outside of the walls of reason.  This is regardless of whether or not they can be formally expressed.  If everything can simply be reduced down to something biochemical, etc. then we become rote and entirely predictable more or less. I do not doubt Dan Dennett's idea, however, it seems that we must become machines in order to reach "perfection" as logical beings.  Perhaps this is a reductio ad absurdum, but this is what my intuition tells me.  ;)

Dimitri Drjuchin (amazing painting of Robert Anton Wilson)

Gemma Ward Magic

Rebecca Morgan

I love this artist named Rebecca Morgan.  Her work is some of the freshest and more poignant work in painting/drawing I have seen in a long time.  There is so much here...she critiques so many dimensions and expresses them in an incredibly beautiful, talented hand.  Currently, I believe she is represented by Asya Geisberg, an old schoolmate of mine.

What I see foremost is her incredibly interesting portrayal of femininity.  She does it in a visceral way that seems uncanny and not hackneyed like so many feminist artists of the past.  There is a mixture of comedy, horror and beauty that seems to yearn for resolutions between the contrived urban world, and the sublimely Utopian world of nature.  Of course, woman in a traditional sense is nature and ancient myths conveyed this through elaborate symbol systems.

I think many artists can relate to this symbology, regardless of their gender.  The detachment and ennui felt while living in New York City and pursuing an art "career" are daunting and relentless.  I think too that the place of the feminine in this world has become detached from itself, ironically through years of trying to achieve liberation.  Perhaps there is an unconscious yearning to go back to some perceived ideal?  Perhaps too Rebecca masterfully portrays the odd inability of such ideals, as they can only exist conceptually.

Atheism is a Religion

More and more...I am starting to form the position that Atheism is in fact a religion.  Of course, this very idea is abhorrent to Atheists, who mistakenly believe that not believing in God or the supernatural is equitable with not believing in anything.  Furthermore, another mistake made in this case is that being an atheist is equitable with being more rational and intelligent.  There are so many hypocrisies lurking here that it is disturbing.  Atheism and Science go hand and hand.  Although Atheism is not dependent on science per se to exist, most and many modern atheists are Darwinists and/or Naturalists.  Dan Dennett is an example.   Being probably agnostic myself, Dan Dennett is an atheist and philosopher I enjoy learning from, as he most definitely presents challenging and intelligent information about our world.  Being intellectual, I try to entertain as many ideas as possible, so as to keep an open mind.  Life after all is some infinitely open book of knowledge as far as I am concerned.

So, back to the issue of Atheism being a religion.  There are several more traditional examples, especially Buddhism, which many atheists understand to be atheistic, but still hold on to the idea that Buddhism posits the supernatural into its philosophy.  The Four Noble Truths are very basic, grounded ideas and have nothing to do with the supernatural at all.  Tibetan Buddhism is another thing altogether.  Atheistic Quakers exist and if one has a more complex understanding, Hinduism and Jainism for example, offer up negative theologies as well.  The absence of God in religion is not a new thing.

Another thing of interest is "The Sunday Assembly", an atheistic church.  Ninian Smart's 7 Dimensions of Religion do apply to something of this nature.  The very fact that atheism is itself a belief system, since the existence of God or the supernatural cannot be proven, sets it up for religiosity.  Religion as defined is more open for me and going to the root of the word, is more of a reliance on an idea, creed or belief as to how one lives one's life.

For me it does not matter either way...I do not however find salvation in Atheism.

Good luck in trying to do so...

Death

Death is the singular, pervasive, equalizing reality for all humanity.  We are no better than any living thing in this respect.  In fact, stones were revered because they "outlive" humans.  Stonehenge exemplifies the reality of human hands that only have their trace in a monument.  We see the monument today, but can only imagine the individuals who put it there.  In the end, we all become phantasms of the mind.

I think about our society as a whole and how it is psychologically crafted around the issue of death.  Everything from beer, to food, to disinfectants and clothes, all of these products they sell us try to convince us somehow we are eternal in this world.  However, all around us we see people dying.  It is no big deal in the end, without death, there would be no life.  But, in the end it is death that brings us all together as one, not life.  In life, everything is separate, can be described and criticized, but in death, no one can take anything with them.  We still don't even know what happens when we die in truth.

Melissa Brown

Melissa Brown is an artist who shows with Kansas and is associated with artists like Brian Belott and CANADA gallery.  I have been familiar with her work for a long time, but recently had the chance to meet her personally.  I asked her about her use of landscapes and she appreciated that question.  It made me think more formally about painting in particular.  Again, here is an artist fusing multiple dimensions into something that presents itself in a challenging way.  First glimpse might miss the whole reality.  Her work is more than abstract, architectonic, geological, paradoxical, formal, colorful, etc, more than just a pretty picture.  Of course, that is a part of it as well.  However, all of these aspects are elements that form a larger, "Dadaesque", perhaps quantum reality that in my view is inter-dimensional.

Of course an artist like Melissa is concerned with formal elements, like color and space.  She has the education and art knowledge for such things.  However, there is a quirkiness and eccentricity that is not contrived.  Her playful nature comes through and it is refreshing to see.  She seems to always be seeking out some transformative viewpoint, a new lens of consciousness about painting and art.  I know that she has worked with games like the lottery as a high concept, as well as mail art in the vein of Ray Johnson.  This painting, entitled "Grassy Waves" was in the Dadarhea show at CANADA in 2011.  If you are interested in seeing more of her work you can visit her website at www.melissabrown.tv/‎.

Double D

Kitsch is Now, Probably Dead or Dying

One thing that seems to be prevalent today in fine art is kitsch.  At first, there was some kind of an ironic play rooted in postmodern academicism going back to the 80's (perhaps earlier) and beyond.  Many artists started to turn to kitsch as a conceptual, tongue in cheek, "I know this is kitsch, but I am doing it consciously, therefore it is high art" kind of way.  Now, this is so pervasive, that bad art and kitsch are hallmarks for what seems to be an entire generation.  One look at the art of today and it becomes obvious that being bad is the only way to be "good".

The referencing of kitsch is no longer about popular culture or bad, unconscious art, it is about fine art itself.  There are a multitude of styles and genres being generated, especially in painting and it is all bad in one way or another.  I think we have all become accustomed to this reality and no longer question it.  It connects to most culture today, especially Internet culture, like motherboards and Internet memes, which seem to favor "low-techism" as a pathway to self-expression.  It is an aesthetic of choice, founded upon increasingly tiring notions that progress was bad as a modernist ideal.

Nothing should become too comfortable in art.  Art is and should remain a way of searching out possible new paradigms, shifting consciousness in new directions, offering potential revelations, being aware, but not to the point of redundancy.  Either art, fine art that is, is dying before our eyes, or we are going to have to find something else to draw upon to plant seeds for a new generation to come.

Matt Jones

I'll give this one a go...outer space magnets for magnitudes.  Deep, dark, darky occult musings on the wonder of spatial emptiness.  All of this is tied together with a quiet, but burgeoning rage in the machine.  The matrix hums as paint renders forth the magic of time as space, etc.

Matt Jones is a strong painter with a different take on abstraction.  He is a very talented draughtsman as well.  This painting is an older example of his space paintings.  He also has paintings that incorporate Black Flag iconography.  I think the use of appropriate forms and imagery is absolutely correct today or at least representative of what is happening.  Behind the scenes it feels like an alien is doing the artwork.

Matt might let us in on that one...

Untitled (Head Morph)

Donald Baechler

Last night I was talking with the Master contemporary artist Donald Baechler.  Donald has a studio that works similar to Warhol's factory.  Many of the past and present assistants in his studio are worthy and emerging contemporary artists in the field.  Brian Belott, Lance de Los Reyes, Brendan Cass, Wes Lang and many others are all associated with Donald.  I think this is what makes Donald a continuing vital presence in the contemporary art scene.  Not only is his work tremendously influential, as is seen in the work of someone like Masaki Kawai, whose opening was last night at The Hole gallery at 312 Bowery, he is very physically present in the scene.  This is something that you just don't see with other artists of his generation.  It is clear that Donald cares about what is going on and is a guiding spirit in the background of it all.  In other words, there is an indication that Donald is not smug or comfortable with the fact that he is well established.  Meaning, as an artist he is continuing to stay in touch with current ideas as they relate to his own work.  Very interesting indeed.

The influence he has had on so many contemporary artists is without question and the fact that he continues to make vital work is something all artists should strive for.

Misaki Kawai

Misaki Kawai is a Japanese artist living in New York City.  Her work is done in a naive style.  Perhaps she has a relationship with an artist like Yoshitomo Nara, but her work looks closer to me in many ways to Donald Baechler.  I have seen her work with Donald's at Cheim and Read.

Misaki has traveled extensively and her work is influenced by her travels.  Her work is fun, symbolic and playful.  It reminds you to be a kid again.  Art is not necessarily so serious an endeavor, we make things because crafting ideas is like child's play; innocent, yet rich with imagination.

I particularly like this piece which is more abstract, looks like a star cross or something else.

She has a show coming up at The Hole, Kathy Grayson's gallery this month.

George Condo

One of my all time favorite artists is George Condo.  When I first moved to New York, I was searching deeply within and without myself.  With heavy graffiti influence, I started to want to moved away from that and fine my own way.  One day, probably in 1998 or 1999, I picked up a magazine with George Condo's "Interchangeable Reality" painting.  From that point on, the odyssey began for me.  I think as artists we all have one or two, but definitely more artists that are sort of like over souls for us.  Whether alive or dead, they represent psychically what we also would like to become.  Influence is a good thing, because it communicates ideas and memes through the ether into a cultural connection forming neologisms.  I finally met George and showed him how the Art card in the Tarot mystically connects to his "Interchangeable Reality" painting.  Interestingly enough, the zodiac sign that rules the art card is Sagittarius and that is George's sun sign.  I gave him one of my alien drawings back then...I hope he still has it.

Kadar Brock

Abstraction has never left us.  In fact, it is even stronger today.  As a part of some type of post-post conceptual approach to painting, there are painters making interesting abstractions in spite of its regurgitated redundancy.  Mary Heilmann comes to mind, as well as Laura Owens.  It seems there has to be an intention in making this type of space anymore, because quite frankly, it gets boring.  One of those painters is Kadar Brock from the Hole NYC.  Personally, as an artist, I think his art is his name.  He does not even need paintings, because he is his art.  That is a good thing for an artist.  His persona as well is what he seems to encapsulate in these cerebral zones of street like histories.  The surfaces of these particular paintings are reminiscent of the city walls covered over with detritus and graffiti, and then worn away.  Although a lot of craft goes into these pictures I am sure, they seem to tell of story of self production.  It is as if they happened over a long period of time due to weather or other outside forces, non-human forces.  

Kadar does other abstractions as well that use letters or look similar to late Frank Stella or even Trudy Benson.